Mediasonic is a small Canadian outfit specializing in storage devices and accessories. They're primarily known for their multi-bay enclosures that allow consumers to augment their PC with extra storage in external form. Today we're going to take a look at one of their more popular products, the ProBox HF2-SU3S2, a 4-bay enclosure with both USB 3.0 and eSATA interfaces, active cooling with fan control, and syncing features that allow it to power on/off with the system it's connected to.

The ProBox moniker is applied liberally to a variety of Mediasonic's wares including the HFD1-SU3S2 4-bay dock, and the monstrous H82-SU3S2 8-bay enclosure. The ProBox HF2-SU3S2 is only a 4-bay device but being a simple enclosure, it lacks the physical girth of NAS systems and full-fledged servers, as well as the attention from the media. The ProBox is a humble device by comparison, lacking an operating system, network connectivity, or even RAID functions (check out the ProRaid series if RAID capability is required). It is just a USB/eSATA connected local storage extension.

The Mediasonic ProBox HF2-SU3S2.

The ProBox is quite compact, only 16.6 cm tall, equivalent to about seven stacked desktop hard drives. A small grill under the bezel allows air to pass through the drives to an 80 mm fan at the back. The fan can be run on automatic, tied to a thermal sensor inside, or set to one of three speeds, via a front panel control. Other controls allow you to switch the interface between USB 3.0 and eSATA, and change the sync mode that dictates whether it will shut down, go to sleep, or remain active if the PC it is connected to powers down. The sleep function also wakes up the drives if the system turns back on. It's a simple device but it's anything but dumb.

The box.

Package contents.

The ProBox HF2-SU3S2 ships in a dark cardboard box with a convenient plastic carrying handle. Included in the package is the enclosure well protected with foam padding, a brief instruction sheet, USB 3.0 and eSATA cables, the power adapter and cable, and four handles with screws.